Seoul has extended an offer to Pyongyang to hold working-level talks on the revival of the long-suspended tour program at North Korea's Mount Kumgang resort, a South Korean unification official said on Monday
SEOUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th October, 2019) Seoul has extended an offer to Pyongyang to hold working-level talks on the revival of the long-suspended tour program at North Korea's Mount Kumgang resort, a South Korean unification official said on Monday.
The offer comes after North Korea announced plans on Friday to tear down hotels and other facilities built by the South in what was supposed to be a celebrated joint business project.
"The government proposed that a working-level meeting be held between authorities (of the two sides) to discuss the issue raised by the North and the issue of Mount Kumgang tourism," unification ministry spokesman Lee Sang-min was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as saying.
Earlier last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the site, which has been abandoned since 2008, and denounced the structures as resembling makeshift tents in disaster stricken areas, according to material released by the state-run KCNA news agency.
The spokesman underlined that unilateral measures taken by the North against property rights of South Korean businesses would hurt inter-Korean relation, according to Yonhap.
The project began in 1998 and was predominantly funded and built by South Korea with Hyundai Asan, the car manufacturer's investment wing that develops projects in North Korea, being the main investor.
Along with an industrial park in the border town of Kaesong, the projects were completely abandoned in 2016 amid escalating international sanctions against Pyongyang for missile tests and the development of nuclear weapons.
